Last week I was reviewing the user accounts for an online educational service to which our school subscribes.  I was reviewing the accounts to archive former teachers and see which of our new teachers were using the service. As school administrator for the service, I also have access to usernames, which are generated by the teachers themselves.  It is really amazing how much you can tell about people by what they choose for their username. While most had some version of their real name, some had “innovative” – even bordering on graphic – login ID’s.

What’s amazing is that teachers who are signing up for an educational service provided by an external company would use such handles for their username. It reminds me of the various email addresses provided by adult students in the undergrad Education course I taught the last two years at the local university.  Many contained strong imagery – with various takes on “sexy” thrown in – and were far from professional.  I didn’t say anything to any of them, but thinking back, I think I failed them somewhat by not having the conversation about professionalism and digital citizenship.

The question is, if these adults are the ones teaching (or preparing to teach) our students, just what do they have to offer in preparing our future digital citizens.  This is something we need to have conversations around in our schools, but who is going to steer the ship towards sound ideas surrounding creating a positive digital footprint?

Unfortunately, I didn’t have access to their passwords.  I wonder what stories they may have told.  On second thought, maybe I don’t want to know.

Technorati tags: technology, education, whipple, learning

Photo Credit: Timelog Login, Uploaded to Flickr on July 9, 2008 by freddyware